First stage maintenance ...

[RaginCajun]

Here's a question on regulator maintenance.

I was inspecting my wife's first stage (Scuba Pro MK25) recently and it has what appears to be a hard water stain/deposit where the first stage connects to the tank. It just looks like the calcium carbonate or lyme type scale you might see build up on a shower if you have hard water.

I first took a closer look at her regs after I noticed that she didn't really shake the water out of the dust cover before putting it up for storage recently. This does seem a bit strange though because the regulator was probably used once in the pool and once at a local freshwater lake since the last service.

In my mind improperly storing a regulator once or twice with a few drops of even the hardest of waters does not correlate to this amount of scale buildup. It's a mass thing, there simply isn't enough minerals in the water to fall out compared to what I saw.

Aside from the suggestion to bring it to the dive shop immediately for service, what is the usual course of action for cleaning this up? Would this normally get scrutiny during a yearly maintenance routine? Are there any parts in the first stage that get changed out? Is there anything I might be able to do to clean this up myself?

Seemed like an interesting topic to bring up for discussion.

Thanks

 

[Couv]

Comment sa va, Cher,

Here are some possibilities:
Hard water deposits...but as you said, not likely unless the fill station has a problem.
Aluminum oxidizes... from a fill station or scuba tank, especially if you rent tanks.
Salt crystals…..no way if just a pool and fresh water.
"Caked" lubricant.... If your LDS got PTFE (O2 safe) grease in that area and it dried….not likely.
Filter material from your fill station….possibility, but you have 2 regs and only 1 has deposits.
Simple corrosion.... My best guess, especially if water was left to soak that area for a long time.

However, this is usually green. Yes, the people who serviced your equipment would have cleaned this area, but by cleaning, it also makes it more subject to corrosion as the chrome is thinned just a tiny bit with every cleaning in vinegar or in an ultrasonic cleaner.

Have a good look at the filter with a strong light. Do you see any green or deposits on the filter? If you feel comfortable with removing the filter, pluck it out and peek inside the hp inlet. Any corrosion or deposits in there? Pull the hoses and plugs out of each port and inspect as much of the low pressure and high pressure areas that you can. If it's all clean, then check out the thread "Regulator checklist and inspection." and do a few checks on the health of your first stage.

Want to go a little further? Get a 1 inch wrench and remove the yoke retainer for a good look into the first stage…..but this may be out of your comfort zone.

If you can, post a few pix for us and please keep us updated.

Cheers,

couv